Archive for 2006

Register.com requires $35.00 for me to renew toddsingleton.net with them for one year. For those of you not familiar with domain registration, that’s a ransom right now. For example GoDaddy.com charges $6.99 for a new registration and usually less for a renewal. So tonight I went to transfer my domain to GoDaddy. Part of the transfer process requires providing GoDaddy with a domain “Authorization Code”. I went to Register.com to get this as required. I was told I would have to “speak to a special customer service representative to handle that request” who is only available from 8am to 6pm EST. Funny, every other registrar I know of will send the authorization code to the administrative email on record for the domain (mine).

Well, here’s the problem: this domain expires at exactly midnight tonight. See the situation that’s forming? I called GoDaddy for help since I already paid them $7.99 for the transfer (which coincidentally includes a FREE one year domain registration extension). The rep laughed at the notion that I had to speak to a “special customer service rep” for an authorization number from Register.com. He then offered to refund the transfer fee if I ‘d like. I said no. I’ll have to pay the freakin’ ransom to Register.com and then I’ll move this domain straight to GoDaddy to get my free one year extension giving me the domain for 2 years. Register.com offered two years for $49.95. Wow, do their prices suck or what?

In the meantime I have another domain currently registered through Register.com, southeasternrea.com. I will begin the process of transferring that domain to GoDaddy immediately for $7.99 so I won’t have to pay over FOUR TIMES as much to renew it for one year. And what does this accelerated pricing buy you? Limited domain management tools in the web interface requiring you to have to call a “special customer service rep” to manage your own domain. That’s about as weak as it gets.

If you have a domain about to expire with Register.com here’s my advice: Transfer it to GoDaddy for $7.99 at least 10 days before the expiration date and get yourself a free one year renewal. This is the best way to let Register.com know their prices bite ass. And for those of you who are wondering why I don’t just let the domain expire and then renew it with GoDaddy for $6.99 I will detail the lifecycle of an expired domain.

Once a domain expires the previous registrant has 12 days to renew the domain at the regular price (DNS is disabled).

After 12 days the registrant can renew the domain for the regular price plus a surcharge of $80 for up to 30 days.

After 30 days the domain is put up for auction for 30 days.

After 60 days the domain is returned to the previous registrar (Register.com in this case) who can put it back into the public registry as available. I don’t know if there’s a time frame in which they’re required to do this.

Spokeswoman Stephanie Crayton said Bridges was originally billed too little because the hospital coded the case wrong.

“The confusion started because Bridges was a third party paying someone else’s bill. Most of the time, Crayton said, a third party is an insurance company, and Bridges was originally billed the price insurance companies pay for treatment, which is much less than what people who don’t have or don’t use insurance pay.”

This is the first time I’ve heard a hospital representative make this claim publicly. The question is why? Why do people without insurance have to pay more than the negotiated insurance rates? This is what make programs like Maternity Card so appealing. You get the benefit of participating in a plan with pre-negotiated rates even though you will pay the bill out of pocket. This is a practice by health care institutions that must be stopped but won’t. There’s too much corporate health care influence in Washington.

Tonight Connor ate a huge bowl of spaghetti, went into our bedroom and fell asleep on “Daddies Bed”. I don’t know why it’s not Mommies and Daddies, but I’ll accept the honor of being the presumed sole proprietor.

A few minutes ago as I sat at my PC browsing the web for the perfect new watch (since I now own zero that work) I heard little footprints downstairs and someone calling my name (Daddy). I went to the bottom of the stairs and there was Connor who said “I forgot to give you night-night kisses Daddy”. So I sat on the steps for my big hug and kiss, after which Connor put his thumb in his mouth, cuddled his blanky and went down the hall back to bed.

This is what I’ve waited my whole life for. To be this important to someone, anyone, is the reason we’re all here. It’s not to become rich, famous, or recognized in elite social circles as the smartest guy in the room. Because no matter what kind of super star athlete or Pulitzer Prize winner some of us may become, I promise that you will never mean as much to anyone on Earth as you will your 3-year-old. And in turn your children will never mean as much as anyone else to you. So like I said, you want a reason for living, there it is.

There are many people with psychological conditions I don’t understand. Among these are religious fanatics, serial killers, and people who buy picture frames and hang them without removing the sample photos. But one that perplexes me a lot is people who are so into themselves, and their meager lives, that they make a conscious decision not to have kids. Not only do they not know what they’re missing, and never will, but it also seems they’ve lost touch with their natural reason for existing. I’ve done most of what I can with my life, and maybe there’s more to come, but anything that comes my way now is really my boys.

I once overheard a conversation between two associates during lunch about a father who left his four year old daughter standing on the side of a frozen pond while he dove in to try to save his other child who had fallen through the ice. Both the father and the child drown (it was national news last year). The guy without children argued he should not have done it because he should have thought about his other child. The other associate, who also has two boys, said “You’re obviously not a parent or you would know that man was going to save his child or die trying”. Which he did. – Good man.

And he’ll be here on April 3rd 2007 give or take 5 days. We’ve got ultrasound pics I need to scan this week and put on FLICKR. We still need to decide on a middle name for Logan Singleton. Connor’s going to have a brother. Something neither Amy or I had.

Tonight I was surprised to see this unexpected increase in my savings account balance. When I logged on to my BOA accounts page I saw an increase of $120+ dollars. It was my annual “keep the change match” where BOA matches a percentage of what I transfer to my savings account through the Keep the Change program. Every time I use my ATM Check card the change rounding to the dollar is transferred into savings. Pretty cool. This is the first time in a while I’ve felt positive about a bank program of any type.

Even though I am gainfully employed in a full-time position I still receive an endless number of emails and phone calls from recruiters scraping Monster.com and Dice.com for Citrix Administrators, SQL Admins, MS SQL DBA’s, etc. I honestly can’t understand how most of these guys get anyone to work for them except the desperate unemployed. I’m going to dissect a recent contact I received from a headhunter sending spam to everyone who had a Citrix certification on Monster.

“Hi Philipe,

I am a recruiter from XXXX; I have a position in NJ as a Senior Citrix Metaframe team Manager. I would appreciate if you can forward your updated resume.”

Now let’s count the reasons I would NEVER contact this recruiter, “Subbu”.

My names not Philipe, I don’t even go by Phillip.

He never looked at my resume or he would know I go by Todd.

My resume states “geographic location: RTP, Raleigh/Durham” not New Jersey.

Subbu probably doesn’t speak English as well as he writes it which is not encouraging since he writes it broken (I couldn’t imagine being hired by someone who can’t communicate effectively and professionally in my native language). Recruiters that I can’t understand get classified as cheap overseas labor.

Who in their right mind with 7-10 years of Sys. Admin experience would answer this request for a resume?

Again, who with 7-10 years of experience would jump on a 12 month “team management” contract? (They would have to mad cash)

Subbu did not even close his email with his full name, just Subbu. He also asked for the last four digits of my social as part of the requested response. Do mass market headhunters really think that there are experienced Sys Admins sitting around, poor, waiting for some vague position to come along in hopes they’re qualified? If I were an employer I would be highly skeptical of any candidate coming from a recruiting source such as this. Unfortunatley this email personifies 90% of the recruitment contacts I receive.

Was not that we can potentially start focusing on domestic issues more than foreign failures. It wasn’t the fact that we can stop arguing about the validity of electronic voting machines. Hell, it wasn’t even that the left created such vaccum on the right that Rumsfeld was finally asked to exit stage left. It was because this election decision was aided by the votes of the highest number of 18-29 year olds to ever vote in a modern, mid-term election. Today websites are full of gloats from many who “won” the first election they ever voted in.

This was too quickly overlooked by the media with only brief mention by CNN in one morning segment. Didn’t enough incumbents learn in the early 70’s that if you agitate enough college students with an unpopular war you’re going to cause a movement? It may not be big enough to run on it’s own but combined with enough disgruntled veteran voters you’re just gonna get voted out of office. So while Ultra Conservatives were busy trying to get enough camoflauge hats and bibles to the polls, the Democrats did just that, plus a silent mob of enraged youth arrived for the only thing they’ve committed to waking up in time for in the past two years and changed the face of congress. Go drink a keg, you earned it.

This election should prove to all future candidates and representatives elect that partisan politics and corrupt shrugs at the opposition does not validate the perceived notion that the public is clueless in the face of Washington arrogance. Regardless of party affiliation our idea of effective leadership is not all that different. Go forth and take care of the issues that matter to the public at large, the majority, for the greater good. Avoid idealistic crusades for any vocal minority and above all be prepared to admit to your mistakes and appologize publically. This takes more pride and earns more respect, nationally and internationally, than trying to “stay the course” to save face when the course clearly has no positive resolve (put in more troops or take them out – just do something).

But don’t take it from me. Listen to the greatest number of modern young voters to ever disapprove of the leadership from our elected representatives.

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